How senior policeman Zia-ul-Haq was murdered in Raja Bhaiya's constituency

New Delhi: It was sunset in Ballipur, a village in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, when the pradhan or village head, Nanhe Yadav, was shot by four people. This is the turf of Raja Bhaiya, who has been elected from this region five times as a state legislator. Raja Bhaiya, who resigned on Tuesday as a minister, will be investigated by the CBI for criminal conspiracy. (Read)

The four men who allegedly killed Nanhe Yadav were associates of the politician, says the local police. The pradhan fell to the ground just a few feet from a small row of shops that were allegedly a point of dispute between the killers and him.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-ul-Haq arrived in the village with three policemen. Mr Haq rushed the pradhan to the nearest hospital. Doctors declared the headman dead on arrival.

Mr Haq then returned to the village with the pradhan's body. An angry mob of 300 was waiting. Mr Haq had eight policemen with him now.

Some within the mob were armed.

The police says that Mr Haq and his officers were outnumbered and decided to find shelter. They claim that Mr Haq was separated from the others and cornered by the mob behind the dead pradhan's house.

Three gunshots were then heard.

The police says that two of the three bullets hit the pradhan's brother, Suresh Yadav.

Just five metres away, Haq was being battered by a crowd. Then he was shot from behind. His body was dragged to a well nearby.

But Haq's widow, Parveen Azad, challenges this sequence of events. She alleges that the policemen accompanying her husband deserted him. She had demanded Raja Bhaiya's immediate arrested as she says he can influence the investigation.